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f DOCUMKNT 

I No. 76 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR 
BEET CULTURE 



LETTER FROM AND DATA PREPARED BY 

TRUMAN G. PALMER 

CONCERNING THE INDIRECT AGRICULTURAL 

BENEFITS WHICH ARE DERIVED FROM 

THE CULTURE OF SUGAR BEETS 






PRESENTED BY MR. SMOOT 
July 25, 1911.— Ordered to be printed 




^ INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 



Washington, D. C, July 17, 1911. 
Hon. Reed Smoot, 

United States Senate, Washington, D. C. 

My Dear Senator: In accordance with your suggestion, I inclose 
herewith some data which I have prepared on "The increased yield 
of other crops due to rotation with sugar beets," a subject of vital 
interest not only to the people of your State, but to the Nation. 

To handle this subject, it becomes necessary to compare the crop 
yields of Europe and the United States, and the regrettable feature 
about it is that such comparison does not contribute to one's national 
pride. 

A recent magazine article which dealt in glittering generaHties was 
put out under the caption, "The United States feeding the world." \ 
One of the statements made was that when we shipped our cotton to 
Europe we sent with it the food products to feed the starving work- 
men who made it into fabrics and laces. 

One phase of our all too prevalent vulgar boastfulness would be"^ 
cured if we but realized that Europe, without Russia ("the granary of 
Europe"), occupying but 45 per cent of our surface area, tills double 
the number of acres of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes that we 
till, and from that double area devoted to these five crops their farm- 
ers harvest lour times the number of bushels that our farmers harvest ; 
that of these five crops Europe produces more bushels per capita for 
their 300,000,000 people than we- do for our 90,000,000 people, and 
that during the past 30 years Europe has increased her acreage yield 
of these five crops 75 per cent, while we have increased ours but 8 per^ 
cent. 

In the accompanying data I have attempted to make plain th^ 
fact, so well understood in Europe, that the remarkable economic 
position of that country has been brought about by the introduction 
of the humble sugar beet^he leaf buds and roots of which in the time 
of Augustus Caesar were used as a food for slaves, and must have 
been considered very vulgar, since Caesar delighted to compare slack 
persons with boiled mangel, "betizare" dicebat. 

Although my study of the beet-sugar industr}^ extends over a 
period of 15 years, during 9 of which I have been secretary of the 
American Beet Sugar Association, it was not until I began making 
study trips in Europe that the full value of the industry in its inter- 
related connection with general agriculture dawned upon me, and 
since then I have devoted a large portion of my time to a study of 
this particular feature of the industry. 

Anybody will admit that it would be desirable to produce at home 
the $180,000,000 worth of sugar we annually import from foreign 
countries and our island possessions, and turn this vast sum into the 
pockets of our own instead of foreign farmers and laborers. That in 

3 



4 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

itself would be a consideration of great economic value to the Nation, 
but it would be small indeed compared to the indirect benefits to be 
derived if we produced this sugar from beets, the cultivation of which 
in Germany, in rotation with wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes, 
has resulted in their farmers securing from the land which they devote 
to these five crops an excess annual yield worth $900,000,000 more 
than our farmers secure from a like area devoted to the same crops, 
and if from our total area devoted to these five crops our farmers 
secured as great a yield as do the German farmers our farmers would 
be richer by $1,400,000,000 a year. 

Fifty years ago Bassett, in his work, Guide Practique du Fabricant 
de Sucre, said: 

The manufacture of sugar from beets is one of the most important elements of public 
prosperity. Resting on agricultural progress and the wants of a constantly increasing 
population, allied by reason of the cattle which it supports with the production of meat 
and bread, based upon improving cultivation, it renders to modern society the greatest 
services, at the same time that it attains for itself the highest point of prosperity and 
glory to which any industry ever had the ambition to aspire. 

Louis Napoleon, when imprisoned at Ham, in 1842, said of the 
beet-sugar industry in his Analyse de la Question des Sucres : 

It retains workmen in the country, and gives them employment in the dullest 
months of the year; it diffuses among the agricultural classes good methods of culture, 
calling to their aid industrial science and the arts of practical chemistry and mechanics. 
It multiplies the centers of labor. It promotes, in consequence, those sound princi- 
ples upon which rest the organization of society and the security of government.*; for 
the prosperity of a people is the basis of public order. * * * WTierever the beet is 
cultivated the value of land is enhanced, the wages of the workmen are increased, and 
the general prosperity is promoted . 

In another place the same author puts the following words in the 
mouth of the sugar industry : 

Respect me, for I improve the soil. 1 make land fertile which, without me, would 
be uncultivated. I give employment to laborers, who otherwise would be idle. I 
solve one of the greatest problems of modern society. I organize and elevate labor. 

In 1853, when the French Emperor and Empress came to Valen- 
ciennes, a triumphal arch was erected, with the following inscription : 

.SUGAR MANUFACTURE. 

Napoleon I, who created it. Napoleon III, who protected it. 

Before the manufacture of beet sugar Since the manufacture of beet sugar 

the arrondissement of Valenciennes pro- was introduced the arrondissement of 

diiced 695,750 bushels of wheat and fat- Valenciennes produces 1.157,750 bushels 

tened 700 oxen. of wheat and fattens 11,500 oxen. 

Grant, in his Beet Root Sugar and Cultivation of the Sugar Beet 

(1867), says: 

I have said a direct net profit of $20 per acre, because it has been found in Europe 
that there Ls also an indirect profit on the beet crop in the large increase of crops suc- 
ceeding it and in the cattle supported by the pulp. Experiments have conclusively 
proved that lands now yield from two to three times as much grain and support from 
eight to ten times as many cattle, in the beet-growing districts as they did before the 
beet was introduced. The great beet-producing districts of France are the grain dis- 
tricts and the cattle districts also. The three branches of agriculture always coexist. 

If aur farmers were made to know tliat by proper rotation the 
<;ulture of 40 acres of sugar beets would increase tiieir yield of all 
other crojKs on 160 acres from 20 to 80 per cent, you coidd not build 
factories fast enough to care for the beets they would furnish. Gratl- 
uaily they will find it all out for themselves, ^but it is a slow process. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 5 

Five years ao^o a beet-sugar factory was erected at Cliaska, Minn., 
where it since has been operated eacli year, and as evidence of the 
time it takes to disprove erroneous impressions and absorb the truths 
which Napoleon })ublioly prochiimed a century ajjo, and which 
since have been prochiimed by practically every European agri- 
cultural economist of note, I quote a local notice which recently 
appeared in the Wabasha (^linn.) Herald. Tliis notice says: 

THE SUGAR BEETS — WHAT IS DONE FOR THE LAND — ATTENTION, FARMERS. 

One of the best crops of wheat raLsed in this vicinity this year was that of George 
Hauswedel. The wheat was a fine stand of good quality and well filled out. There 
were 14 acres, and the result in thra-shing was an average of 32 bushels to the acre. 
This comes as a surprise to many farmers, since the field was planted to sugar beet* 
last year, and the impression prevails that a crop of the latter will so exhaust the soil 
as to yield a poor crop of grain the next year. Mr. Hauswedel, however, has demon- 
strated the fallacy of this supposition. We understand that the soil was given no 
special treatment, and no jjarticular effort was made toward securing an exceptional 
result. 

You see that with a factory o])eratin<j: in their midst for five years 
the erroneous impression still prevails that sugar beets exhaust the 
soil. Notwithstanding the contrary experience of all Europe, and 
of this man, and probably many of his neighbors, I have no doubt but 
what a canvass of the farmers about Chaska would show that the 
general idea concerning beet culture is tluit beets injure the soil, 
and that uidess they harvest "so many tons of beets ])er acre at so 
mucji per ton" tJic\v will decline to grow beets. Tlie average wheat 
yield )f ^lirmesota is 13.4 bushels per acre, hence the yield quoted 
above was 139 per cent in excess of the average wheat yield of the 
State. If sucii a yield were secured throughout the State, it would 
add $84,000,000 a year to the wealth of Minnesota wheat farmers, at 
85 cents per bushel. Each increase of 1 busliel of wheat per acre 
in the State of Minnesota will a(hl S4, 500, 000 annually to the wealth 
of her wheat farmers. This result at Chaska, which is reported as 
being a general sur])rise, is but an echo of what one hears on all sides 
in tlie sugar-beets districts of Europe and what our forefathers 
could have heard over there 50, 75, and even 100 years ago. 

Last September I visited the 7,000-acre Tachlowic estate at Yene, 
30 kilometers from Prague, Bohemia, one of the imperial estates of 
Emperor Fran(;is Joseph. Sixty years ago a beet-sugar factory was 
erected on this estate and since that time one-third of its cidtivable 
area has been planted to sugar beets, grown in rotation with otlier 
crops. The records of the estate show that for the 60 years since one- 
third of the area has been devoted to sugar beets, the remaining two- 
thirds has produced a greater tonnage of all other crops than did the 
entire three-thirds for 60 years prior to the construction of the factory, 
and, in addition to this, the stock-carridng capacity of tlie estate has 
been increased 100 per cent. 

At Hatwan, Hungary, 60 kilometers from Budapest, I visited the 
25,000-acre estate of the Barons Alexander and Joseph Hatvany, 
both of whom are agricultural economists of high repute throughout 
Europe. This estate is equipped with the largest beet-sugar factory 
in Europe, slicing 3,000 tons of beets per day and using the beets 
grown on 50,000 to 70,000 acres. While they were producing sugar at 
a small profit, the great inducement in operating the factory w^as the 
indirect advantages secured through beet culture. They grow 3,000 
acres of beets on the estate, which they rotate with O'OOO acres of 



6 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

wheat, barley, and other crops. The balance of their beets are grown 
on other near-by estates, the owners of which, in order to secure the 
rotating value of sugar beets, are only too glad to produce large quan- 
tities of high-grade beets and sell them for a fraction over one-half the 
average price paid for poorer beets in the United States. Their largest 
contractor furnishes them with 3,000 acres of beets, which average 
18^ per cent sugar, and the price paid per 2,000-pound ton was at the 
rate of $3.36, our money, as compared to the average price of between 
$5 and $6 per ton in the United States. 

I will digress for a moment to state that this estate, formerly the 
property of Maria Theresa's favorite prime minister, is the most 
perfectly equipped and managed property I have ever visited. Aside 
from the 120-room palace, which in summer is occupied by the 
Hatvanys, there are beautiful homes for the various managers and 
superintendents, a small city of workingmen's houses, innumerable 
barns of great proportions, machine shops, wagon and blacksmith 
shops, dairies, electric-light plant, ice plant, and everything else 
necessary to conduct the estate without calling on the outside world. 
A private narrow-gauge railway, equipped with GOO cars, taps every 
field. The estate is equipped with an abundance of the best agricul- 
tural machineiy, including numerous steam plows, all of which is 
carefully housed. It is stocked with 4,000 dairy cows and work oxen, 
which produce great quantities of manure, and this is prized as highly 
and protected as carefully as is the grain, being thoroughly rotted 
before it is spread on the fields. Every pound of milk is shipped to 
Budapest. The refuse of the sugar factory is used to feed the cattle, 
and upon learning that American farmers about many of our beet- 
sugar factories would not haul the pulp away as a gift, "they asked me 
to look the matter up and see if arrangements could not be made to 
dry it and sell it to them for a term of years. They raise vast quan- 
tities of wheat, but never sell a bushel, seven modern flour miUs on 
the estate, with a capacity of 30,000 sacks a day, turning it into flour 
and leaving the by-products to be fed to stock. The same with the 
barley; a well-equipped brewery turns it into beer, leaving the by- 
product for stock food. One can not imagine a more scientrncally 
managed property, where every farthing of profit is secured. 

First. They secure the customary jnofit in producing raw cereal 
products. 

Second. B}- preparing the raw material for the table and shipping 
nothing but what is ready for direct consumption thev secure the 
manufacturing profit. 

Third. By feeding the by-products to their own stock instead of 
wasting or selhng them to feeders, they secure the piofit from dairying 
and fattening cattle. 

Fourth. From their 4,000 head of daiiy cows and work oxen they 
secure an abundance of manure with which to build up the chemical 
condition of their soil and make it more productive, thus securino- 
another profit. ^ 

Fifth. By operating a sugar factory which shces the beets from 
50,000 to 70,000 acres of ground, they secure the profit derived from 
sugar manufacture and also from the feeding value of the resultant 
by-products. 

Sixth. By growing 3,000 acres of beets, thev secure the profits of 
sugar-beet faiminir. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 7 

^Seventh.*By rotating beets with 9,000 acres of wheat, barley, oats, 
and other crops, the consequent deep plowing, thorough cultivation, 
and aerating effect of the beet rootlets keeps their soil in perfect 
physical condition and so greatly increases the yield of all other crops 
that this produces the greatest profit of all. 

By folloAving the above method, they are able to extract the last 
dollar the estate is capable of producing, and however long this method 
might be continued, the productivity of the soil would be maintained 
at its maximum. It reminded me of Armour's packing house, where 
he said they saved all of the hog but the squeal. The Hatvanys own 
two other large estates in Hungary, one of 15,000 acres, both equipped 
with huge up-to-date beet-sugar factories, the raw product for which 
furnishes the inspiration for this character of farming. This is but 
one of many eq^ually well-managed European estates where sugar 
beets form the pivot around which all agricultural operations center. 

At last, by personal experience, those of our farmers who employ 
correct cultural methods and who keep a record of their yields, are 
beginning to learn what our scientists and economists have failed to 
teach them concerning the improvement of the soil through beet 
culture. Numerous letters received from farmers in your State, as 
well as in other States, show this, and as showing that these bene- 
ficial effects are not confined to any one section of our country, I 
have produced a few letters from each of several beet-sugar-producing 
States. 

On my next study trip to Europe I hope to conclude my researches 
on this phase of the sugar question, alter which I will present you 
with something more than a boiled-down statement, such as I am 
inclosing herewith. I then will lay before you and your colleagues 
and before the country statements in extenso concerning economic 
facts of record, the results of a long line of experiments conducted 
by the most prominent agricultural scientists and economists Europe 
has produced during the past century, together with their conclusions, 
a record of my personal observations in Europe and in the United 
States, and the statements of such American beet farmers in the 
various States as have kept records of their yields and noted the 
increase. From the data already gathered, I am confident that I 
will be able to pre&.ent such a quantity of indisputable evidence as 
to prove to any fair-minded person that by producing our sugar at 
home the net profits accruing to our farmers through the excess 
yields of other crops would exceed by many times the total value 
of the sugar produced, and it would seem that an industry of such 
potentiahty for creating wealth should interest every thinking per- 
son, irrespective of party affiliations or preconceived contrary ideas 
of economics. 

To the end that we may ificrease our national prosperity and at the 
same time lower the cost of producing our food supply, it would 
appear that something, anything, everything within reason should 
be done to force or cajole or coax our farmers to plow deep, to cultivate 
thoroughly, to care for their barnyard manure properly and to estab- 
hsh a reasonably scientific system of crop rotation, whereby the field 
to which they apply their energies will be made to yield as much or 
more than do the rejuvenated soils of Europe. 
Verv sincerely, yours, 

Truman G. Palmer. 



8 [KDIKEC^T BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

Influence of the Sugar Beet on Modern Scientific Agri- 
culture. 

THE fountain MEAD OF INSPIRATION WHICH LED TO DEEP PLOWING, 
SCIENTIFIC ROTATION, INCREASED FERTILIZATION, THOROUGH CUL- 
TIVATION, AND DOUBLED THE ACREAGE YIELD OF ALL CROPS IN 

EUROPE. 

[By Truman G. Palmer.] 

The production of the food supply of human beings ever has been 
and ever will continue to be the most important consideration of 
man, and he wlio makes a given area produce a bushel and a peck 
where it formerly produced but a bushel is a pubhc benefactor. 

Two thousand years before the birth of modern agricultural science 
that science had reached a higli level, and the crop yields probably 
were greater then than they are to-tlay. 

One hundred and fifty years before Christ, Cato the Elder, the 
Koman statesman and patriot who fought Hannibal and Hasdrubal, 
wrote a book on fanii management, a ))erusal of which would en- 
hgliten the average American farmer to-day and teach him how to 
increase the yield of his fields. 

Cato proclaimed the fundamentals of good agriculture in his De 
Re Rustica when he said : 

Wh&t is the first principle of good agriculture? To plow well. What is the second? 
To plow again; and the third is, to manure. 

To the farmer who kept stock, he said : 

Plan to have a big compost heap and take the best of care of manure. WTien it is 
hauled out, see that it is well rotted and spread. 

And to the farmer who had no stock, he said : 

You can make manure out of litter, lupine straw, chaff, bean stalks, husks, and 
the leaves of the ilex and oak. 

A hundred years after Cato's death, Augustus Caesar made frequent 
mention of beets, which then were one of the princi})al foods for slaves, 
w^hile the leaves long had been used as an auxiliary fodder for stock, 
and there are those who believe that, known by some other name, 
beets formed an important feature in Cato's crop system, just as they 
did after their value had been rediscovered 20 centuries later. 

People forgot Cato's teaching, and when, 2,000 years later, Napo- 
leon Bona])arte stepped upon the stage at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, the worn-out soils of Europe had reachecl their lowest 
ebb in productiveness, and scientists and economists were in despair 
because of the insufficient food production to feed the ever-increasing 
population. 

The genealogy of modern European stientihc agriculture reaches 
back to the beginning of the nineteenth century only and shows that 
the beet-sugar industry was its father and that Napoleon Bonaparte 
was the father of the beet-sugar in(kistry. 

German scientists discovered the i:)resence of sugar in the beet and 
perfected a method of extracting it, but Napoleon Bonaparte's chem- 
ists and economists, after 10 years of scientific research, became con- 
vinced that by growing sugar beets on a field one year in four the 
fertiHty of the soil thereby was so greatly increased that the combined 
yield of other crops on the same soil (hiring the next three years was 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 9 

greater thtm fonneriy it had been for four years, and it remained for 
Napoleon himself to grasp the tremendous significance of a discovery 
which could be made to serve the double purpose of solving the 
nation's food-supply jiroblem and freeing it fi'om dependence on 
Great Britain. 

By reason of Napoleon's Berlin and Milan decrees of 1806, pro- 
hibiting the importation of colonial articles and establishing the "con- 
tinental system," the price of sugar had risen to $1 per pound, and 
mutterings against imperial rule were heard upon all sides; but these 
rumblings in no way affected the plans of Napoleon, now that he had 
become convinced of the indirect advantages of beet culture. 

On March 11, 1811, Napoleon said in an address befort the Chamber 
of Commerce; 

Commercial relations with England must cease. I proclaim it to you, gentlemen, 
distinctly. * * * I am informed that from late experiments France will be able 
to do mthout the sugars and indigoes of the two Indies. Chemistry has made such 
progress in this country that it will probably produce as great a change in oiu* com- 
mercial relations as that produced by the discovery of the compass. 

On March 18, 1811, Napoleon dictated a note to his minister of the 
interior in which he said: 

The minister of the interior will make a rejjort to be seni to the council of state, in 
which the advantages of developing the manufacture of beet sugar will be included. 
AH steps shall be taken to encourage this culture and if necessary by modifying the 
customliouse tariff for a period of five years, or even the possibility of prohibiting 
absolutely the importation of colonial or foreign sugars. The minister will take steps 
to make trials in a very extensive manner and to establish schools for teaching the 
manufacture of beet sugar. 

The minister will apportion among the different departments 60,000 arpents (90,000 
acres) of land, on which it will be necessary to grow beet roots sufficient for the entire 
consumption of France. The proper officers will be appointed to see that the cultiva- 
tors deliver their proportions. 

The minister will also advise the cultivators that the gi-owing of beet roots improves 
the soil and that the residue of the fabrication fm-nishes an excellent food for cattle. 

On March 25, 1811, Napoleon issued a decree appropriating 
1,000,000 francs ($200,000) for the establishment of six technical 
beet-sugar schools, compelling the peasant farmers to plant 79,000 
acres to sugar beets the following season, and decreed that ''From the 
1st of January, 1813 * * * the sugar and indigo of the two 
Indies shall be proliibited." (Extract from decree attached hereto.) 

On January 12, 1812, Napoleon issued a decree providing that 100 
students should be selected from the schools of medicine, pharmacy, 
and chemistry and transferred to the technical beet-sugar schools ho 
had established the year before; that 150,000 acres should be sown 
to beets; that financial inducements be extended to scientists to 
further perfect the process of extraction and to capitalists to engage 
in the manufacture, and for the immediate erection of four imperial 
beet-sugar factories. (Copy of decree attached hereto.) 

As a result of the perception, determination, and power of one man, 
the industry vdiich was to revolutionize modern agricultural methods 
not only was created but within two years was established on an 
extensive scale, as is shov>'n by the report of Napoleon's minister of 
the interior at the beginning of 1813, in which he said: 

Dm'ing this year the manufacture of sugar which is extracted from the beet root 
will give us 7,700,000 pounds of this staple. It is prepared in 334 factories, all of 
which are in actual activity. * * * Nothing has been neglected to naturalize 
this staple at home, and the conquest is finally assured. 



10 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

For centuries Europe had been cursed with sagebrush, gravei-pit 
farming methods, such as our low croj) yields demonstrate still are in 
vogue to a great extent in the United States to-day, ami while 
Napoleon compelled the peasant farmers to grow^ beets whether they 
wished to or not, his scientists and their successors developed scien- 
tific agricultural methods, taught tlie French farmers how^ to cultivate 
beets and other crops properly, and as the beet sugar industry spread 
to other nations, their scientists and economists vied wdth the French 
in this work, until now, in most portions of Europe, everything is 
farmed properly, as is shown by their superior crop yields. 

At the time sugar beets were introduced in France, European 
farmers w^ere plowing but 3 to 4 inches deep, but the beet being a 
deep rooter, compelled them to adopt deep plowing— Cato's first 
principle of good agriculture — and as the benefits of it came to be 
recognized, deep plowing became the custom in the culture of all 

''' European economists observed that following beets the roots of 
cereal crops which theretofore had drawn nutriment from but 3 to 
4 inches of soil now followed the interstices left by the millions of 
decaying beet rootlets which were broken off when the beets were 
dug, and by drawing nutriment from double the depth of soil they 
doubled their soil productivity without increasing their acreage. 

European agriculturists found that the frequent hoeings necessary 
to the production of a beet crop rid their fields of noxious weeds, 
and thus the full strength of the soil went to the crops they were 
raising, instead of being drawn upon to maintain a growth which 
was worse than useless. 

As a result of sugar-beet rotation in Europe it was observed that 
where formerly it had been necessary to allow^ the exhausted soils 
to lie fallow every fourth year in order to rest them and to tear out 
the thick growth of weeds, they now could secure a heavy crop each 
year. 

Once inaugurated, the growing of sugar beets rapidly increased 
and soon became one of the most important industries in France, 
that country since having produced 27,000,000 metric tons of beet 
sugar. 

During the time that France has been producing 27,000,000 tons of 
sugar for home consumption and for export, worth, at 4 cents per 
pound, $2,364,000,000, our imports of sugar have risen from 50,000 
to 2,500,000 tons a year, and during that period we have imported 
67,000,000 tons of sugar at a cost to the Nation of $4,600,000,000. 

We raise and export the wheat from 6 acres of ground and use the 
proceeds to ])urchase sugar which we could raise at home on 1 acre. 
To-day it requires the gold we receive from all the wheat we produce 
on 11,000,000 acres to purchase abroad the sugar we could produce at 
home on less than 2,000,000 acres, and by so doing cease tilling 
9,000,000 acres or use it for other purposes. 

The sugar we import contains no fertilizing elements, while each 
bushel of wheat carries with it 17A cents worth of nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and ])otash, and the wheat we annually exchange for $180,000,000 
WH^rth of sugar carries with it fertilizer to the value of $30,000,000. 
In exporting 5,000,000,000 bushels of wheat since 1867, and exchang- 
ing it for sugar, we have robbed our soils of nearly $1,000,000,000 
worth of fertilizing elements. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 11 

France is the size of our three o;reatest wheat-producing States, 
Kansas, Minnesota, and North Dakota. In 1907 France sowed 
16,000,000 to wheat, as did these three States. Since the introduction 
of beet culture, French soils have been so rejuvenated that from her 
16,000,000 acres of wheat French farmers harvested 325,000,000 
bushels, while from our 16,000,000 acres the farmers of Kansas, Min- 
nesota, and North Dakota harvested but 188,000,000 bushels, or 11.7 
bushels to the acre to the Frenchman's 20.3 bushels. 

From France the beet-sugar industry spread to every country of 
continental Europe, which since has produced 150,000,000 metric 
tons of sugar, worth, at 4 cents per pound, $13,000,000,000. 

Europe produces annually 8,000,000 tons of beet sugar, consumes 
5,500,000 tons, and exports 2,500,000 tons, while the United States 
produces 800,000 tons of beet and cane sugar, consumes 3,300,000 
tons, and imports 2,500,000, taking a portion of Europe's exports. 

Not only does Germany produce the sugar h'>r ])eo])lp consume and 
$50,000,060 worth for ex})ort, but by reason of better farming metli- 
ods, brought about through the establishment of the beet-sugar 
hidustrv, her so-called "worn-out soils" now produce 30.5 bushels 
of wheat to our 15.8; 59.1 bushels of oats to our 30.3; 39.4 bushels 
nf barley to our 24.3; 29.4 bushels of rye to our 16.1; and 208.9 
bushels of potatoes to our 106.8. 

In 1907, Germany and Kansas each sowed 5,200,000 acres to 
wheat and from their 5,200,000 acres of rejuvinated soil, German 
farmers reaped 145,000,000 bushels, while from our 5,200,000 acres 
of virgin soil, Kansas farmers reaped but 68,000,000 bushels. 

Germany alone absorbs one-half of the world's i)roduction of potash 
and the European imports of commercial fertilizer are enormous. 
As commercial fertilizers aid the chemical condition of the soil, so 
sugar beets aid its physical condition. When the farmers ap])ly 
commercial fertilizers, they have to pay for the fertilizer, but when, 
by growing a crop of beets which they sell for enough to pay for the 
cost of production, and at the same time add greatly to the produc- 
tivity of the soil, it is equivalent to securing the fertilizer for nothing. 

As compared to the total United States ])roduction, Germany, 
with an area equal only to that of Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri, 
produces one- tenth as much tobacco, one-fifth as much wheat, three- 
fifths as much oats, four-fifths as much hops, four-fifths as much 
barley, three times as much sugar, six times as many potatoes, and 
nine times as much rye. In 1907, German farmers, from 43,000,000 
acres sowed to wheat, rve, barlev, oats, and potatoes, harvested 
3,000,000,000 bushels, while from the 88,500,000 acres sowed to the 
same crops in the United States, American farmers harvested but 
1,875,000,000 bushels. In other words, from less than one-half our 
area, German farmers harvested nearly double the number of bushels. 

If on land devoted to wheat, oats, barley, rye, and potatoes in 
Germany their farmers secured only our average acreage yield of 
those crops, German farmers would be poorer by $900,000,000 a year. 

If on the land we devote to wheat, oats, barley, rye, and potatoes 
American famners secured the same yield per acre as is secured by 
German farmers, our farmers would be richer by $1,400,000,000 a 
year. 

By the expenditure of far more labor the German farmer secures a 
yielcl of beets 2 to 3 tons per acre in excess of our average yield, but 



12 INDIRECT BliNEFlTS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

the nioiiev value of the German's hirger erop is less per acre than is 
the smaller yield of the American farmer, yet German farmers pro- 
duce 15,000,000 tons of beets annually, while American farmers pro- 
duce but 3,500,000 tons. On the other hand, German farmers produce 
30.5 bushels of wheat per acre to our 15.8 bushels and the price per 
bushel is higher in Germany than it is in the United States, ^<ot- 
withstanding tJicse facts we export $119,000,000 worth of wheat and 
wheat Hour and im])ort $180,000,000 worth of sugar, while Germany- 
exports $50,000,000 worth of sugar and imports $65,000,000 worth of 
wheat. Considering the fact that there is no crop grown the yield of 
which is increased by preceaing it with a wheat crop and that there 
is no crop grown the ^deld of which is not increased by preceding it 
with a beet crop, are the Germans wise in importing wheat and 
exporting sugar, or are we wise in importing sugar and exporting 
wheat ? 

When we import 95° or 96° sugar, we are importing a product on 
which j^ractically all of the labor has been performed in a foreign 
comitry. To melt and recrystallize this sugar and prepare if for 
the table contributes but little to American industry. In refining the 
3,148,818 short tons of raw sugar we imported and consumed last 
year there accrued to American industry in office expenses, brokerage, 
labor, fuel, bone black, bags, barrels, and all other supplies $6.48 per 
ton, or $20,404,340, while in producing but 511,840 tons of refined 
sugar from American-grown beets there accrued to American industry 
$38,388,000, on the basis of 3.75 cents per pound average cost. To 
import all our sugar and merely refine it in this country woidd con- 
tribute but $22,842,000 to American industr}^, while to produce the 
same amount of sugar from American-grown beets would contribute 
$274,547,000 to American industry. 

That we have an abundance of sugar-beet land on which to produce 
our sugar is shown by a report of the Secretary of Agriculture, in 
which he states that if but 1 acre in 50 of our well-defined sugar- 
beet area were planted to sugar beets once every four years it would 
produce all the sugar we now purchase from foreign countries, and 
thus would return our farmers $125,000,000 a vear instead of 
$21 ,000,000, as at present. 

We are said to "feed the world," but with only 45 per cent of the 
surface area of the United States, Europe, without Russia, produces 
twice as much wheat and oats, three and one-half times as much 
barley, seven times as much sugar, twelve times as many potatoes, 
and twenty-five times as much rye as is produced in the United States, 
notwithstanding the fact that we lie m the same latitude, have a 
superior agricultural climate, virgin soils of greater natural richness, 
and that her soils have been cropped for centuries. 

While the United States often is represented as "feeding the 
starving hordes of Europe," the truth is that their rehabilitated 
soils, even exchuUng Russia, the "granary of Europe," produce 
more bushels of the five crops of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and pota- 
toes per capita of their ])opulation than we produce in the United 
States per capita of our population. 

As compared to Europe, we have richer soils, a better agricultural 
climate, more live stock to produce the fertihzer, more and better 
farm implements and machinery, a more extensive, scientific, and 
expensive Department of Agriculture, presided over for the last 14 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 



13 



years by the greatest executive ap;ricultiirist we have prochiced, a 
more intelhoent and well-to-do class of farmers, and yet, with all 
these superior conditions, our combined average acreage yields of 
wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes in 1907 were but 21.2 bushels 
per acre, as compared to an average yield of 43 bushels for the same 
crops throughout the Continent of Europe, exclusive of Russia. 

Our increased use of commercial fertilizers from 845,000,000 valu- 
ation in 1890 to $110,000,000 in 1910 would seem to be inadequately 
reflected in our 8 per cent increase in combined average acreage 
yield of wheat, rye, barley, oats, and potatoes during the past 30 
years, especially when compared to the 75 perr.ent increase in acre- 
age yield of the same crop? in Germany during the same period, as 
shown by the following official figures of the two countries: 

Increase in yield of Jive staple crops in Germany and the United States. 





Germany. 


United States. 


Increase. 




1878-1883 


1909 


1879 


1909 


Germany. 


YSS. ««— y- 


United 
States. 


Rye 


Bushels 
per acre. 
15.7 
19.2 
24.5 
31.8 
115.5 


Bushels 

per acre. 

■29.4 

30.5 

39.4 

59.1 

208.9 


Bushels 
per acre. 
14.5 
13.8 
24.0 
28.7 
98.9 


Bushels 
per acre. 
Ifi.l 
15.8 
24.3 
30.3 
106.8 


Bushels. 
13.7 
11.3 
14.9 
27.7 
93.4 


Bushels. \ Per cent. 
1.(1 ' 87.2 
2.0 58.8 
.3 60.8 
1.6 \ 85.8 
7.6 , 80.8 


Per cent. 
10.9 


Wheat 


14.2 


Barley 

Oats 

Potatoes 


1.2 

6.7 
7.6 



As all the preceding statements concerning the acreage yields and 
production in Europe and the United States are based on official 
figures which readily can be verified, the}^ should correct the all but 
universal misconception concerning this important subject, humiliat- 
ing though the truth may be. 

Conceding the fact, which can be substantiated by the written 
words of Europe's foremost thinkers of the past century, that the 
beet-sugar industry more than any one or all other causes combined 
has furnished the inspiration wluch has resulted in placing Euroi)e so 
far in advance of the United States in concrete agricultural results, 
the question naturally arises as to why we have not followed more 
closely in Europe's footsteps, doubled the acreage yield of our staple 
crops^ and prodiiced all of our sugar at home, instead of producing but 
500,000 tons of beet sugar at home and importing 2,500,000 tons, 
the equivalent of what Euro})e exports after supplying her 400,000,000 
inhabitants. 

Of minor causes, there are several, including the low wage rate of 
Europe, the lower price for beets, the fostering care of their govern- 
ments, extending even to the placing of large })ounties on sugar 
exports in order that they might compete successfully with tropical 
sugars, while our fiscal S3^stem has been unstable and vacillating, 
sometimes afi"ording protection to home producers and sometimes 
not. Since the time France prohibited the imj)ortation of sugar and 
established the beet-sugar industry in that nation, the Ignited States 
customs duty on imported sugar has undergone thirteen revisions, 
being reduced from time to time by various Congresses from 10 
cents per pound to absolute free trade, and now is fixed at 1.65 cents 
for 95° and 1.9 cents for refined sugar. 



14 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

The main reason why we produce but one-half to two-thirds as 
many bushels of grain per acre as does Europe is because, with rare 
exceptions, our American economists have failed utterly to recognize 
the beet-sugar industry as the father of modern scientific agriculture, 
the very fountain head of inspiration from which the science sprang, 
the great "normal school" of agriculture which trains the indifferent 
farmer to be an expert farmer, because of the fact that sugar beets 
I'orm the only important agricultural crop which, unless the price 
per ton be exceedingly high, refuses to return a profit or even expenses 
when farmed in a slip-shod manner, and the superior methods which 
the farmer is forced to apply to beet culture gradually are applied 
to the production of other crops and finally are adopted by neighbor- 
ing farmers, even though they raise no beets. 

It was beet culture that forced European farmers back to deep 
plowing, compelled them to clear their fields of weeds, caused them 
to adopt a scientific system of crop rotation, led them to devise new 
and better implements, doubled their stock-carrying capacity as well 
as their manure, and brought them to a better realization of the value 
of barnyard manure, as well as of commercial fertilizers, and as a 
result what were formerly the "worn-out soils of Europe" now are so 
productive as to make our "virgin soils" seem barren in comparison. 

While American economists have failed to recognize the sugar beet 
as the father of modern scientific agriculture, there are some few who 
realize the great indirect advantages to be derived from the culture 
of beets, but even they have failed to capitalize and put in concrete 
form these indirect benefits in order that our people might realize 
the enormous wealth which would accrue to the Nation by deriving 
our sugar supply from home-grown beets. As in teaching the farmers 
tlie stress has been laid upon "so many tons of beets per acre at so 
much per ton," so in teaching the people the main stress has been 
laid upon keeping a hundred or two millions at home each year by- 
producing our sugar at home instead of importing it, almost uni- 
versalty overlooking the far more imi)ortant and valuable indirect 
benefits. 

Having failed to imj)ress the farmers with the rotation value of 
sugar beets and the enemies of the industry having spread broadcast 
the erroneous statement that sugar-beet culture injures the soil — 
just as in the inception of the indiistrv an English society offered 
Achard first $30,000 tind then .1^120,000 if he would declare his process 
a failure, and finally induced Sir Ilumphre}^ Davy to publish a work 
on beet sugar in w hich he declared it was far too sour for consumption — 
the average American farmer has been slow to engage in beet culture, 
even at prices for his product rangino- from 25 to SO per cent in excess 
of the prices paid for richer beets in Europe. In establishing 334 
])eet-sugar factories in as many localities in France in 2 years. 
Napoleon opened 334 schools of scientific agriculture, while in the 
33 years since the establishment of our (h-st successful beet-sugar 
factory we have created but (iO such schools, concerning which the 
present Secretary of Agriculture says: 

Every sugar- factory manajreiiient in this country must nece.ssarily call to its aid a 
Ihuroughly scientific and j^ractica] aLrriculturi.st. and under him a corps of assistants, 
equipped and convensant. not only with cultivating sugar beets, but familiar with 
methods of culture, fertilization, drainage, rotation, and all the necessary scientific 
knowledge to produce successfully all kinds of crops indigenous to the particular 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OP SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 15 

locality. This agriculturist and his assistants are constantly traveling over the sugar- 
beet producing district of this particular factory, advising farmers particularly in the 
growth of beets, and generally in the production of all other crops. They are as 
much interested incidentally in the handling of the lands producing other crops as 
they are particularly the one in charge. It is these other lands that will produce 
sugar beets next year. • 

A sugar-factory district is an "extension course" in agriculture to every farmer in 
the district, whether he be growing beets or not. It could not be conceived, with 
such influences constantly in operation, that the sugar industry is not exerting a 
potent influence most favorable in production of all crops. 

If the above-mentioned truths, no truer to-day than they have been 
at any time during the past century, liad been drilled into the head 
of every farmer boy at the little red schoolhouse, as they are and 
have been in Europe since the time of Napoleon, we long since would 
have been producing our own sugar at home and, because of our 
superior soil, cUmate, and numerous other advantages, our acreage 
yields of all other crops to-day would be the envy instead of the ridicule 
of European thinkers. As it is, we have niissed the mark completely. 
As a rule, our farmers have taken the shadow for the substance. 
"So many tons of beets })er acre at so much per ton" is the first tiling 
considered in America and the last thing in Euro})e, and if sugar 
beets failed to yield a greater direct profit than do other crops, the 
average American farmer abandons the culture and aj)plies himself 
to growing the more easily produced cereals, wliile the European 
farmer will grow beets at a considerable direct loss latlier than to 
abandon the culture, well knowing that he will far more than make 
u}) any losses on the beet crop by the increased yields of other cro])s 
with which, for three years, he follows beets. It unquestionably 
is true that, because of the exceedingly low world price of sugar, 
Europe long ago would have ceased to produce sugar for export, if 
not for home consimiption, had it not been that beet culture so 
greatly increases the yield of all other crops. 

Instead of growing beets on the same soil year after year, the 
European farmer rotates them with other crops, sowing them on the 
same soil as infrequently as possible, in order to benefit the maximum 
area, never losing sight of or sacrificing the advantages to accrue 
for the following three years, while tens of thousands of American 
farmers, sowing beets only for the direct returns, sow them on the 
same soil year after year, thereby not only losing the greatest profit 
beet culture affords, but gradually wearing out their soils as they 
sureW will be worn out by cropping them constantly to any one tiling 
year after year without rotation. 

In every community where sugar beets are produced, there are 
farmers who, by personal experience, have learned the truths which 
Napoleon proclaimed a century ago, and their number is increasing 
yearly, but there are thousands wlio still miss tlie main feature in the 
culture of sugar beets as thoroughly as one would miss it who said that 
a farmer painted his barn red in order to provide a red building to gaze at . 
/^Witli the European farmer the main purpose in planting sugar beets is 
to increase the yield of bis otlier crops by rotation with the beets, just 
as the primary purpose of j)aiiiting a barn red or yellow is to ])reserve 
the wood. With tlie European farmer, the direct returns from a crop 
of beets are as truly an incident as is the color of the barn. 

The following limited selection of letters and reports received from 
farmers located in beet districts from Oliio on the east to Washington 



16 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUC4AR-BEET CULTURE. 



on the west is sufficient to show tl\at with the spiead of tl^.e beet-sugar 
industry and the consequent adoption of proper cultural methods, the 
farmers of the United States can render their soils even more pro- 
ductive than are the rejuvenated soils of Europe, and that the beneficial 
results to be secured from the introduction of this crop are not confined 
to restricted localities. 

While corresponding closely ^\^th other reports on file, the number 
of reports herewith produced is too small to be used as a basis for an 
accurate calculation, but that the results obtained by these farmers 
approximate the results that are obtained by other equally intelligent 
farmers and which would be obtained by them generally with the 
further expansion of the beet-sugar industry, there is no reason to doubt. 

The average. of these 30 reports shows that at the time these farmers 
introduced beet culture, their yield of wheat was 92 per cent above 
the United States average yield for 1907, their yield of barley was 37 
per cent higher, and their yield of oats was 70 per cent higher than 
the United wStates average. . Notwithstanding this fact, by the intro- 
duction of beet culture as a rotating crop, they increased their acre- 
age yield of wheat 42.5 per cent, their barley 78.6 per cent, and their 
oats 71.8 per cent. If, through the general introduction of beet cul- 
ture, all of our farmers should increase their yields of wheat, barley, 
and oats a like number of bushels per acre, based on 1909 farm prices, 
they would be richer by a billion and a quarter dollars a year, and 
if they brought their yields up to those now secured by these farmers, 
their extra vield of these three crops, on the same acreage, would be 
worth $2,000,000,000 a year. 

The average acreage yield of sugar beets secured by these farmers 
was 14^ tons per acre. One report on alfalfa shows an increase of 
1 ton and another of 2 tons per acre, while one report on beans shows 
an increase of 5 bushels per acre and another 6 bushels. One 
report on potatoes shows an increase from a merely nominal yield, to 
200 sacks, or nearly three times the average United States yield. 
Whether with the general introduction of sugar-beet culture, the 
acreage yields of all our farmers would be increased as much, or 
more or less, can not be determined. That they could do it, there 
is no question, but that some still would farm in a shiftless manner, 
is altogether probable. 

Averages of the following reports: 

Average acreage yield of unheal, barley, and oats, prior and subsequent to the introduction 
of s:ugar beets as a rotating crop. 



Average United States yield per acre, 1907 busliels. . 

Average German yield per acre, 1907 do 

Excess German yield per acre, 1907 do 

Excess German yield per acre, 1907 percent.. 

.Vverage yield per acre prior to sugar-beet culture, as shown by following 

reports of American farmers bushels. . 

Average yield per acre by same after introducing sugar beets as a rotating 

crop bushels. . 

Excess yield per acre caused by rotating with sugar beets do — 

Increase in yield per acre per cent. . 

Yield per acre in excess of United States 1907 average yield bushels. . 

Excess of United States 1907 average yield per cent. . 

Yield per acre in excess of German 1907 average yield bushels. . 

Excess of German 1907 average yield percent.. 



Wheat. Barley. 



Oats. 



15.8 


24.3 


30.5 


39.4 


14.7 


15.1 


93.0 


62.0 


26.9 


.32.7 


43.6 


58.4 


16.7 


25.7 


42.5 


78.6 


27.8 


34.1 


176.0 


140.0 


13.1 


19.0 


43.0 


48.0 



.30.3 
59.1 

2S. 8 
95.0 

40.2 

69,1 
28.9 
71.8 
.38.8 
127.0 
10.0 
10. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 17 

Reports prom American Sugar-Beet Growers, Showing Increased Yield of 
Other Crops by Reason of Being Rotated with Sugar Beets. 

OHIO. 

We are well satisfied in raising other crops where we had beets before. We always 
raise better crops on our beet ground than on our other ground . We have had sugar 
beets four years and always fipd satisfaction. We 8ta,rted with 3 acres and this year 
12 acres. We raised wheat, oats, barley, and corn. (Tony Bast, Graytown, R F 
D., 17.) K J , J , 

We are now raising our sixth consecutive crop of sugar beets. When we planted 
the first seed we were told that the beets would wear out the soil; that the sugar com- 
pany were swindlers and would compel the farmers to pit the beets till winter; that jf 
the beets were frostbitten they would be worthless. We have yearly realized from 
$50 to $75 per acre for th(> beets and, moreover, with experience we are ready to state 
that we always grow one-third more oats or barley on ground where beets were raised 
the previous year than on ground that has raised no beets. (Jos. Shiple & Sons, 
Perry eburg.) 

MICHIGAN. 

I wish to say that I have grown sugar beets for the last three years and I can truth- 
fully say that the growing of sugar beets is a benefit to the soil if the crop is given 
proper rotation. 1 have received the best results by following the crop with a crop of 
oats. This season (1909) I thrashed from 5 acres of measured ground, which was in 
sugar beets last seascm, 270 bushels of oats, or an average of 54 bushels per acre. The 
balance of my oat crop which was on ground following a corn crop (equally as good soil) 
is yielding about 40 bushels per acre. Therefore I feel that I am justified in making 
this statement. (Alex. Larkins, Carlelon.) 

I have raised beets for the last seven years and Jiave averaged about 16 tons per 
acre. I also find that oats will do better on the ground where 1 raise beets than they 
will on other ground. This year the oats on my beet ground produced 75 bushels per 
acre, while the others only produced about 60 bushels per acre. (Sam Seizert, 
lilissfield.) 

In regard to beet culture, I wish to say that 1 have raised sugar beets for six years 
and consider it one of the most profitable croi)s that a farmer can raise. Not only 
because lie gets the greater return for his labor, when they are properly cared for, but 
because the ground is left in the best pot^sible condition for the next crop, for since 
raising sugar beets my land has been gradually increasing her yield per acre. The 
increase in yield of oats has been from 15 to 25 per cent, or from 40 or 45 to 55 bushels 
per acre, and on wheat the increase has been about the same. When I have raised 
beets two consecutive years on the same piece of ground and then sowed oats they 
were extra. We as farmers are satisfied that we get better crops since raising beets. 
(S. S. Teed, Middleton.) 

In regard to the condition of ground that beets have been grown on, will say that 
I have grown beets (juite extensively and find that it is an ini])roveinent rather than 
a detriment to the soil. In 1901 1 grew 2 acres of beets; went about 18 tons per acre; 
followed with beets, besides adding 29 acres, making 31 acres for 1902, average 
yield, about Hi tons. Out of 31 acres, 17 acres to beans following, yielding 14 bushels 
per acre. Same 12 acres to wheat yielding 37 bushels per acre, following with the 
biggest crop of hay ever cut in the neighborhood, and 5 acres of 17-acre bean ground 
went to oats the following spring, yielding 53 bushels besides one-third loss on account 
of being lodged, average for year in neighborhood being about 27 bushels. In 1904 
had 2^ acres of beets, yielding about 9 tons, following with oats yielding 45 bushels 
per acre; average in neighborhood, about 30 bushels per acre. In 1905 had 40 acres 
of beets, 8 tons; following 8 acres to beets again, yielding about 10 tons second year; 
following next with oats yielding 51 bushels per acre. Balance of 40 acres, 12 acres 
went to beans; balance of 20 acres were sown to oats, yielding about 47 bushels per 
acre; following same with wheat, yielding about 28 bushels, when average in neigh- 
borhood was about 13 bushels. In 1906, had 14 acres to beets, about 10 tons yield, 
following same with 14 acres to oats, yielding about 47 bushels per acre; then to 
wheat, yielding 28 bushels per acre; average for wheat that year in neighborhood 
about 13 bushels per acre. In 1907 had 17 acres in beets, average about 11 tons. Of 
17 acres 3 acres went to oats, and seeded 6 acres to beets again, yielding about the same, 
and balance of 17 acres, or 8 acres, went to oats, yielding 68 bushels per acre; then to 
wheat, yielding this year 38 bushels per acre, and good seeding in sight. In 1908 had 
15 acres' of beets, aboiit 10 tons average yield; 12 acres now to oats with a prospect for 

S. Doc. 76, 62-1 2 



18 INDIEECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

a bumper crop, and balance of 15 acres, or 3 acres, are to beets again this year. This 
year have 26 acres to beets with good prospect for 11 or 12 tons. This report was made 
and kept on one of my "eighties." On the other have grown in the last four seasons, 
including 13 acres this year, 71 acres, with about the same results in regard to follow- 
ing crops, although have no record of different fields and yield. (W. J. Davis. 
Sunfield.) 

■■ It gives me great pleasure in having a chance to show to my brother farmers the lit- 
tle 1 know about sugar beets placing the soil in a better mechanical condition for other 
grain crops than any other crop in the rotation. On a 6-acre lot of beets I harvested 
11 tons per acre of beets. I followed the beets with barley and got 50 bushels per acre, 
an increase of 50 per cent as compared with crops raised by my neighbors and myself 
formerly. The above 6 acres was put to wheat after the barley and made 35 bushels 
per acre, and the stand of clover is good for sore eyes. I am more than satisfied with 
the beets, not alone for the money crop, but also the permanent trood to the land-. 
(W. L. Huber, Charlotte.) 

WISCONSIN. 

J. L. Walsh, of Beloit, reports that with a farm of which 400 acres are under cultiva- 
tion, the principal crops being cabbage, sugar beets, oats, onions, and clover, has 
grown sugar beets for five years and has 75 acres of beets which, xuider normal condi- 
tions, yield 18 tons per acre. Follows a four-year rotation, including cabbages two years, 
beets one year, oats and clover. F'ollows sugar beets with grain and clover, then 
cabbages. Plows 7 inches deep, and disks and harrows until seed bed is perfect. 
Uses barnyard manure and commercial fertilizer. Hoes his beets twice and culti- 
vates with a horse seven or eight times. Raised 46 bushels of oats to the acre on a 
37-acre field, which the following year was put to beets, and the following year har- 
vested 107 bushels of oats to the acre, while his yield from a 7-acre field of potatoes 
which before produced between 75 and 90 bushels, after beets increased to 225 bushels. 
He says: "I grew 150 acres of beets in 1907, and in 1908 the same land and 100 addi- 
tional acres to beets on the same farm. In 1909 the whole was sown to oats and pro- 
duced 87 bushels per acre." 

In reply to your letter concerning the number of bushels of grain raised on sugar- 
beet ground, will say that from 11 acres of sugar-beet ground I raised 783 bushels of 
oats this year (71 bushels per acre), and that was all the oats I had sowed this year. 
The other farms joining mine only had a yield of between 30 to 40 bushels. Mr. 
Stieneke, one of my neighbors, raised over 75 bushels of oats to the acre on sugar-beet 
land. (Dell Tuttle, Ripon.) 

For the past seven years I have had from 2 acres to 30 acres of beets — sugar beets — 
on this farm. I always have found sugar-beet land the best for small grain, oats and 
barley and clover and timothy, of any land; much better than corn land. I find a 
crop of sugar beets well cared for, pays as good as any crop at high prices, and the best 
crop to clear the land of all foul weeds, including quack and Canada thistle. On a 
15-acre lot where sugar beets were raised last year, 1908, I thrashed and sold 600 
bushels of barley (40 bushels per acre) which graded 47 pounds per bushel. Thirty- 
bushels barley per acre is a good crop here. On an 18-acre lot where 11 acres sugar 
beets and 6 acres cucumbers and 1 acre corn were raised last year, 1908, I thrashed 
1,000 bushels oats. On the cucumber land the oats were weedy, rusty, and lodged 
very green, which made a good 60 bushels of oats per acre on the sugar-beet land. 
Forty to 50 bushels of oats per acre is a good crop here. (R. M. Sherwood, Ripon.) 



In 1908 I grew 3 acres of sugar beets for the Iowa Sugar Co., receiving 12 tons per 
acre. In 1909 I planted the same ground to corn. Adjoining the 3 acres of beets I 
broke up some new land and planted it to corn. During the growing season the corn 
on the new land stood taller than the corn on the beet ground. When I husked the 
corn this fall, the yield from the beet ground was 70 bushels per acre, and the yield 
from the new ground was 60 bushels per acre. In my estimation, beets do not hurt 
the ground, but improve it for the next crop. (C. Grimm, Cresco.) 

Followed beets with oats, 1909, 20-acre field. Field seeded to clover and hay taken 
off the year before the beets. Beets went from 12 to 13 tons per acre. Oats thrashed 
out 65 bushels per acre and weighed out 70 bushels per acre, average for 20 acres, 
the champion yield in Iowa for 1909. (Leonard Miller, Waverly.) 

E. H. Mallory, of Hampton, has a 200-acre farm and has 44 acres in beets, which 
have increased his yield of corn from 50 bushels to 60 bushels, and oats averaging from 
20 to 30 bushels have increased to 50 bushels. 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 19 



A. R. Do\viun<i, of Deirticid, rcporte a fifld of alfalfa plowed up several years, ago 
and put to vyheat, yielding 45 bushels per acre. The field was then planted to beets 
three years in successiou and was then followed by oats, yielding 73 bushels per acre. 
The oats were followed by wheat, which gave a yield of o8 bushels per acre. 

Mr. CarlCoerber. of Deerfield, plowed up a field of alfalfa and put it in wheat, which 
gave an average yield of 35 bushels per acre. This was followed by beets for two years, 
then oats one year, and wheat following the oats gave a yield of 45 bushels per acre. 

NEBUASKA. 

James R. White, of Ilershey, route 1. reports that he farms 210 acres. Principal 
crops alfalfa, beets, corn, and oats. Has grown sugar beets for five years. Has 15 
acres in beets, which usually yield 14 tons to the acre. Plows 9 to 10 inches deep. 
Harrows four times. Fertilizes with barnyard manure. Hoes twice and cultivates 
six times. A 15-acre field of oats prior to beet culture yielded 35 bushels to the acre; 
after lieing in beets two years, yielded 50 bushels to the acre. A 30-acre field of 
alfalfa, which yielded 4 tons to the acre pri(ir to beet culture, yielded 6 tons to the 
acre after having been ]:)lanted to beets three years. 

S. E. Solomon, of Culbertson, reports that he has a 1,000-acre sandy-loam farm, 
with SOO acres under cultivation to wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, and alfalfa. 
Has 300 acres in sugar beets; has grown beets for eight years, and averages 10 tons per 
acre. He says; "Never practiced system of rotation; am not following a system, but 
should do so. Depth of plowing, 6 inches; should be 12; use no fertilizer. Am not 
employing any system of fertilization or rotation. Hand hoe beets one or two times; 
horse cultivate two or three times. Am jxjsitive that rotation and fertilization would 
double average yields. The most slipshod methods are employed in growing beets 
in this section. What is needed is deep plowing, careful rotation, and use of barnyard 
manures. Have had enough experience to fullv demonstrate this." [Frank, but 
foolish.] 

COLORADO. 

Lee Kelim, of Loveland, a large landowner, formerly the owner of the Loveland mill, 
and who has operated thrashing machines in that vicinity for 25 years, says that previ- 
ous to the starting of beet growing, 20 to 25 bushels of wheat was considered a large 
crop, and that out of this they would screen 15 to 20 pounds of wild oats. Now 40 to 50 
bushels is considered an average crop, and he feels safe in saying that in the Loveland 
district the introduction of beets into the crop rotation has increased the yield of grain 
100 per cent, and has cleaned the country of the wdld oats pest. 

J. L. Sybrandt, of Berthoud, reports that he has a 360-acre farm, of which 290 acres 
are under cultivation to wheat, oats, alfalfa, barley, potatoes, and 68 acres to sugar 
beets, which a\erage 12 tons per acre and which he rotates with other crops every three 
to five years, and fertilizes his ground with sheep manure. He has grown beets for 
four years and has increased his wheat yield of 20 to 30 bushels to 56 bushels per acre, 
and his barley yield from 30 to 40 bushels to 65 bushels per acre. 

David Snider, of Platteville, reports that he has a 2,000-acre farm, of which he culti- 
vates 1,200 acres to alfalfa, wheat, oats, barley, potatoes, and sugar beets, of which he 
had in 400 acres. Has grown sugar beets for six years, secured a yield of 13| to 18 tons 
per acre and rotates them with other crops, following them with wheat or barley. 
Plows his land 10 inches deep. Has increased his wheat yield from 30 to 35 bushels 
to 35 to 50 bushels per acre; his oats from 20 to 25 bushels to 60 to 75 bushels; his bar- 
ley from 25 to 30 bushels to 70 to 85 bushels; and his potatoes from a nominal yield to 
200 sacks per acre. 

The Taylor- Fuller Mercantile Co., of Avondale, report that they have been farming 
for 14 years, operating a 120-acre farm, of which 100 acres are in cultivation. They 
have grown sugar beets for eight years and average 14 tons to the acre, rotating beets 
wdth other crops. By rotating with beets they have increased their wheat yield from 
25 to 40 bushels per acre; oats from 30 to 50 bushels; beans from 12 to 18 bushels; and 
hay from 3 to 4 tons per acre . They say : ' " Before the introduction of sugar-beet raising 
farming w^as conducted in a very loose way, and as it is impossible to raise sugar beets 
at a profit without employing the best farming methods, it has made better farmers, 
and thev have found the same pay with any crop. For some reason grain and in fact 
all other crops do well following beets, although the land may be worn out for sugar 
beets." [Note. — In this section it has been customary to follow the "gravel-pit'' 
method of farming, and grow beets on the same soil year after year without rotation^ 
with the inevitable result that the land finally refuses to produce a paying crop of 



20 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 

beets until it has been rested from this crop. As well try to eat a quail every day for 
a month as to try to farm in this manner. In both cases, nature rebels.] 

J. Reimer, of Pueblo, reports that he has been farming in that section 14 years and 
has 50 acres in cultivation, of which 13 acres are in beets. Has grown beets 5 years 
and averages 14 tons per acre. Plows 10 inches deep, harrows four times, hand hoes 
three times, horse cultivates four times, fertilizes with stable manure. Rotation with 
sugar beets has increased his corn yield from 20 to 30 bushels per acre; oats from 40 
to 65 bushels; rye, no increase from 40 bushels; beans from 15 to 20 bushels; and no 
increase in his alfalfa crop of 5 tons per acre. 

MONTANA. 

John B. Glewett, of Fromberg, reports that he is operating a 425-acre farm, with 150 
acres under cultivation, 60 being to beets; secured yield of 15 tons of beets per acre. 
A tract of 22 acres which yielded 27 bushels of wheat per acre prior to beet culture 
was put into beets for three consecutive years, when it yielded 45 bushels of wheat 
per acre. His oat crop increased from 60 bushels to 80 bushels under like conditions. 
He says: "Beet cultivation is a good thing for the character of soil in this district, as 
it seems to fertilize and increase the production of grain two or three seasons after 
rotation." 

UTAH. 

W. T. Wyment, Warren, Weber County, reports 10 acres to beets. Previous to 
raising beets this land produced 25 bushels of wheat to the acre. Beets were grown 
on the land for three years, after which it was planted in wheat again, producing 
45 bushels to the acre, an increase of 20 bushels to the acre. 

J. F. Stoddard, Hooper, Weber County, reports 5 acres to beets. Previous to grow- 
ing beets the land produced 35 bushels of barley to the acre. Beets were grown on 
this land for four successive years, after which the land was planted to barley again 
and produced 55 bushels to the acre, an increase of 20 bushels to the acre. 

Thomas Jones, Hooper, Weber County, reports 10 acres to beets. Previous to plant- 
ing of beets, this land produced 20 bushels of wheat to the acre. After growing beets 
for three successive years it was again planted in wheat and produced 35 bushels to 
the acre, an increase of 15 bushels per acre. 



George A. Pincock, of Sugar City, reports that he has grown sugar beets for five 
years and has 50 acres in beets, averaging 15 tons per acre. Prior to beet culture, his 
wheat yielded 25 to 30 bushels; following beets, 50 to 60 bushels. Oats, prior to beets, 
40 to 46 bushels; following beets, 75 to 100 bushels. Barley, prior to beets, 40 to 60 
bushels; following beets, 75 to 100 bushels. He says: "1 see these yields prevailing 
w^herever beets have been raised." 

WASHINGTON. 

James Hays, of Waverly, reports a yield of 80 bushels of oats after spring plowing, 
and 100 bushels following beets; of wheat, after spring plowing, 40 bushels, and 50 
bushels after beets, this being the average during a period of several years. 

F. Kienbaum, of Waverly, reports his oat yield at 60 bushels after spring plowing, 
and 90 biishels on beet land; wheat, 30 bushels after spring plowing, and 50 bushels on 
beet land. 

A. D. Thayer, of Waverly, reports yield of 45 bushels of oats after spring plowing, 
and 100 bushels on his beet land; wheat, 35 bushels after summer fallow, and 45 
bushels after beets. 

William Connolly, of Waverly, reports yield of 75 bushels of oats after spring plow- 
ing, and 85 to 95 bushels after beets; wheat, 40 bushels after summer fallow, and 50 
bushels following beets. 

CALIFORNIA. 

D. J. Murphy, of Chico, superintendent of the heirs of James Phelan, operating an 
S,000-acre farm with 3,000 acres under cultivation, has grown sugar beets for five 
years and has 600 acres to beets. Secures yield of 12 to 20 tons and practices a rota- 
tion system consisting of wheat, followed by barley, then pasture of voluntary wheat 
or barley, followed by sugar beets. Plows 12 inches deep. Reports an increase in 
yield of wheat, due to sugar-beet rotation, from 10 to 12 bags of 138 pounds each (23 to 
27^ bushels) to 15 bags of 140 pounds each (35 bushels); of barley, from 16 bag of 
108 pounds each (36 bushels) to 24 bags of 108 pounds each (54 bushels). 



INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULTURE. 21 

First Dechee of Napoleon Providing for the Encouragement of the Beet- 
Sugar Industry. 

Palace of the Tuileries, March 23, 1811. 

Napoleon, Emperor of (he French, etc. 

Upon a report of a commission appointed to examine the means proposed to natu- 
ralize, iii^on the continent of our Empire, sugar, indigo, cotton, and divers other 
productions of the two Indies; 

Upon presentation made to us of a considerable quantity of beet-root sugar refined, 
crystallized, and possessing all the properties of cane sugar: 

Upon presentation made to us at the council of commerce of a great quantity of 
indigo extracted from the plant woad, which our Departments of the south produce 
in abundance, and vvhic-h indigo has all the properties of the indigo of the two Indies; 

Having reason to expect that by means of these two precious discoveries our Empire 
will shortly be relieved from an exportation of 100,000,000 francs hitherto necessary 
for supplying the consumption of sugar and indigo; 

We have decreed and do decree as follows: 

Article 1. Plantations of beet root proper for the manufacture of sugar shall be 
formed in our Empire to the extent of 32,000 hectares (79,040 acres). 

Art. 2. Our minister of the interior shall distribute ;i2,000 hectares among the 
Departments of our Empire, taking into consideration those Departments where the 
culture of tobacco may be establi.slied and those which from the nature of the soil 
may be more favorable to the cidture of the beet root. 

Art. 3. Our prefects shall take measm-e that the number of hectares allotted to 
their respective I)e{)artments shall be in full cultivation this year, or next year at 
the latest. 

Art. 4. A certain number of hectares shall be laid out in our Euipire in plantations 
of woad proper to the manufacture of indigo in the proportion necessary for our 
manufacture. 

Art. 5. Our minister of tlie interior shall distribute the said number among the 
Departments beyond the Alps and tho.se of the south, where this branch of industry 
formerlv made great progress. 

Art.H. Our ])refects shall take nieasin-e that the number of hectares allotted to 
their DepartTuents shall be in full cultivation next year at the latest. 

Art. 7. The connnissioii shall, before the 4th of May, fix upon the most conven- 
ient places for the establishment of six experimental schools for giving instruction in 
the manufacture of beet-root sugar conformably to the processes of chemists. 

Art. 8. The commission shall also, before the same date, fix upon the places most 
convenient for the establishment of four experimental schools for gi^•ing instruction 
upon the extraction of indigo from the leaves of woad according to the processes 
approved by the commission. 

Art. 9. Our minister of the interior shall make known to the prefects in what places 
these schools shall be formed and to which pupils destined to this manufacture should 
be sent. Proprietors and farmers who may wish to attend a course of lectures in the 
said experimental schools shall be admitted thereto. 

Art. 10. Messrs. Barruel and Isnard, who have brought to perfection the processes 
for extracting sugar from the beet root, shall be specially charged xs-ith the direction 
of two of the six experimental schools. . ■ , , 

Art. 11. Our minister of the interior shall, in consequence, cause to be paid the 
sum necessary for the formation of the said establishments, which sum shall be charged 
to the fund of 1,000,000 francs ($200,000) in the budget of 1811 at the disposal of the 
said minister for the encouragement of beet-root sugar and woad indigo. _ 

Art. 12. From the 1st of January, 1813, and upon a report to be made to our minister 
of the interior, the sugar and indigo of the two Indies shall be prohibited and con- 
sidered as merchandise of English manufactiu-e or proceeding from English commerce. 

Art. 13. Our minister of the interior is charged with the execution of the present 
decree. 

Decree of Napoleon, January 15, 1812. 
Section 1.— School for manufacture of heet-root sugar. 

Article 1. The factory of Messrs. Barruel & Chappelet, plain of Vertus, and those 
established at Wachenheim, Department of Mont-Tonnere, at Douai, Strasbourg and 
at Castelnaudary are established as special schools for the manuiacture of beet-root 
sugar. 



22 INDIRECT BENEFITS OF SUGAR-BEET CULrTURE, 

Art. 2. One hundred students shall be attached to these schools, viz, 40 at that 
of Messrs. Barruel & Chappelel, and 15 at each of those at ^^'achenheim, Douai, Stras- 
bourg, and Castelnaudary; total, 100. 

Art. 3. These students shall be selected from among students in medicine, phar- 
macy, and chemistry. 

Section 1 1 . — Cnlture of beets. 

Art. 4. Our minister of the interior shall take measure to cause to be sown through- 
out our Empire 100,000 metrical arpente (150,000 acres) of beete. The conditions of 
the distribution of the culture shall be printed and sent to the prefects previous to 
February 15. 

Section III. — Man uj'act lire. 

Art. 5. There shall be accorded throughout our entire Empire 500 licenses for the 
manufacture of beet-root sugar. 

Art. 6. These licenses shall be accorded of preference — 

To all proprietors of factories or refineries. 

To all who have manufactured sugar during 1811. 

To all who have made preparaticnis and expenditures for the establishment of 
factories for work in 1812. 

Art. 7. Of these licenses shall be accorded of right, one to each Department. 

Art. 8. Prefects shall write to all proprietors of refineries, in order that they may 
make their submissions for the establishment of the said factories at the close ot 1812. 
In default on the part of proprietors of refineries to have made their submissions 
prior to March 15, or at the latest April 15, they shall be considered as having renounced 
the preference accorded them. 

Art. 9. Licenses shall include an obligation on the part of those who shall oluain 
them to establish a factory capable of producing at least 10,000 kilograms (22,<MK) 
pounds) of raw sugar in 1812 13. 

Art. 10. Each individual who, having secured a license, shall have actually man- 
ufactured nearly 10,000 kilograms of raw sugar resulting from the crop of 1812 to 1813, 
shall have the privilege and assurance, by way of encouragement, of being subject 
to no tax, or octroi, upon the product of his manufacture for the space of four years. 

Art. 11. Each individual who shall jH-rfcct the manufacture of sugar in such a 
manner as to obtain a larger quantity from the beet, or who shall invent a more .-imple 
and economical method of manufacture, shall obtain a license for a longer time, with 
the assurance that no duty nor octroi shall be j)laced upon the product of his manu- 
facture during the continuance of his license. 

Section IV. — Creation of four imperial factories. 

Art. 12. Four imperial Ijeet-sugar factories shall be established in 1812 under the 
care of our minister of the interior. 

Art. 13. These factories shall l)e so arranged as to produce with the crojj of 1812 
to 1813, 2,000,000 kilograms (4,409,200 pounds) of raw sugar. 

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